The 388 new HIV cases recorded in April were 67 percent higher compared to the 233 recorded during the same month in 2012… the April cases – 368 males and 20 females – have a median age of 28 years, with those in the 20 to 29 age group comprising 61 percent. Except for 32 drug users who were infected due to needle sharing, all new cases acquired the virus through sexual contact, with male-to-male sex accounting for 81 percent.

The Philippine Reproductive Health Law seeks to prevent HIV rise and other sexually transmitted diseases (Sec IV. Definition of Terms, letter q, no. 5). So how would the RH law do it? The RH Law would target families, especially the women, by promoting the use of contraceptive pills and condoms. But nowhere does the RH law talks about homosexuals, and males having sex with males (MSM) account for 80 percent of the new HIV cases! HIV is a real reproductive health disease and not some fuzzy add-on to the definition of reproductive health such as “”mental and social well-being” and “safe, consensual and satisfying sex life”–things that cannot be measured precisely, unless the government would require women to undergo psychological exams during their menstrual periods and require them also to make a logbook of the times they had intercourse, name of their partners, contraceptives used, and satisfaction rating in a 0 to 100 scale–and these data would be sent to the Office for Safe and Satisfying Sex which would be under either the DOH or the Office of Sen. Pia Cayetano. Indeed, sex would then be more fun in the Philippines.

That’s why I believe that the RH Law is not really about women’s reproductive health but population control by promotion of promiscuity, with the Philippine government-ensured promise of safe sex. If the government is intent on stopping HIV rise, the answer is not giving condoms for free to gays and their boy toys, but to educate them on the risks of the homosexual act. It is ironic that the government increases “sin taxes” on liquor and cigarettes, claiming that these are bad for your health, while on the other hand saying nothing about MSM, fornication, and adultery which are not only bad for the sexual health (you can get HIV or AIDS), but also bad according to the RH Law’s all-encompassing definition of reproductive health:

(p) Reproductive Health (RH) refers to the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes. This implies that people are able to have a responsible, safe, consensual and satisfying sex life, that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when, and how often to do so. This further implies that women and men attain equal relationships in matters related to sexual relations and reproduction.

The reason for this is that MSM, fornication, and adultery destroys the family, which is the bedrock of our country. These are mental and social ills–things that should not be promoted with government funding but rather should be discouraged and disapproved through additional taxes and forbidding their advertisements in TVs, radios, train stations, movie houses, billboards, and other public places. In this task, the government would have a major ally: the Catholic Church.

MSM is bad for the health, just like liquor, cigarettes, and chemical contraceptives. That is why condoms for MSM and contraceptive pills for women should have health warnings, such as the following:

“Condoms do not prevent the spread of HIV and 80% of males having sex with males acquire HIV. Use this condom at your own risk Note that a used condom is a medical waste. These should be placed in sealed plastic bags and given to authorized government health personnel for proper disposal. Note that each purchase of a condom pack already includes a sin tax of 30 percent. This is for the proper disposal of your used condoms. Unauthorized disposal of medical waste will be prosecuted accordingly.”

“This contraceptive pill has many side effects like head-aches and irregular monthly cycles. At worse, you can’t have a baby again. Use at your own risk. Note that a sin tax of 30% was included in your purchase of the contraceptive pill. This is for the cleaning of the environmental pollution of our creeks and rivers where your chemical-rich urine will go which can potentially make fishes gay and unable to reproduce.”

If the government would not buy condoms and pills, then the Church has no problem with the RH Law. Let those who need them buy them with their own money and at their own risk with an additional 30% tax, instead of taxing Catholics who cannot use condoms and pills in good conscience. In this way, the RH Law would not need any budget, because it would be able to earn its funding from the 30 % sin taxes for condoms and pills. And oh, haven’t I yet mentioned about giving another 30% additional importation tarriff for condoms and pills? Thus, let us pass the RH Law and give it a Php 1 budget.

If one of the primary issues to be addressed by the RH Bill is maternal and infant mortality, can we really get good data on this and not depend on Guttmacher Institute which was founded by Guttmacher, the president of Planned Parenthood–the largest abortion provider in the world? You already see the research bias of GI. I don’t know what data is available (the more the better), so I’ll just make the following proposal:

1. Get data from each hospital regarding the women who successfully gave birth and those who were not. We need the following data: age, married or not, number of children, ward type (to determine income level), and how long the woman stayed in the ward. We need data on how many died trying to give birth to a child and how many have children who died prior to birth or a week after birth. We need data on what the doctor says is the cause of death of the mother or of the child. Is the woman using artificial contraceptive or not? What type and how frequent (the last two are difficult data to get)2. We need data on hospitals and health centers where the birth or maternal death took place: medical centers, provincial hospitals, etc. We need to know their complete address to know whether they are rural or in the city. We need to know the daily costs per stay in a particular ward. This would help us determine the income bracket of the mother.

3. We can make several correlations and answer several questions: 1. Do more mothers die in rural hospitals than in city hospitals per 100 births? 2. What is the most prevalent cause of maternal mortality? 3. Do poor mothers tend to die more per 100 births than rich mothers? What is the most prevalent cause of infant mortality?

4. We need data at least for one year. If we can get data for more than 1 year, we can normalize our results to the population growth rate.

5. Based on these results we can make recommendations on how to lower maternal and infant mortality rates. Hospital administrators can make policies and legislators can make laws to address these specific problems.

6. We can start with one hospital who can give us data that we need. Write a paper about our research findings. Then add another hospital and improve the methodology, and write another report, and so on. The 11 maternal deaths per day may be true or not true, but we need the reasons why and the actual numbers. We need a real social science to answer the challenge of Sen. Sotto to verify the 11 maternal deaths per day.

If somebody wishes to collaborate on this herculean task, I can help in the research design, data analysis, and paper writing. But I need real data.

I would like to share with you a report from Dr. Brian Clowes, HLI’s Director of Research and Training, detailing a recent mission trip to the Philippines. As the largest Catholic nation in Asia, the Philippines has managed to avoid much of the decay of the rest of Asia, but this fact also makes it the bulls-eye for pro-abortion NGOs and politicians from the West. The fight for life in this pro-life, pro-family nation is intense, and we are called to pray for and with our Filipino brothers and sisters.

After effectively fighting for Faith and family for decades against the Culture of Death, the Church and the people of the Philippines find themselves in a truly desperate situation. For the first time, there is a distinct possibility that this most Catholic of nations might embrace abortion.

For more than a decade, the death peddlers have pushed for the so-called “Reproductive Health Bill (RH Bill),” which provides for the universal distribution of all methods of birth control, including abortifacient pills, injections, and IUDs. The promoters of the RH Bill allege that it will prevent abortions through the widespread promotion of contraception, but its sponsors are well aware that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that “… reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion.”

The RH Bill provides for heavy fines and imprisonment for Catholic and other hospital personnel who refuse to distribute contraception or perform sterilizations. Additionally, anyone who distributes “malicious disinformation” about the RH Bill itself can be jailed. Naturally, the bill’s sponsors refuse to define this term, but we can be certain that they consider all opposition to the RH Bill to be “malicious.” The RH Bill also provides for mandatory comprehensive sex education beginning in fifth grade, which its proponents know is the best way to destroy the innocence of the children and get them “hooked” on contraception.

In other words, the RH Bill is a complete package designed to integrate the anti-life mentality into the fabric of the nation. It is plainly a “lethal injection” to the soul of the Philippines, as the European experience has shown us.

Benigno Aquino III (“Noy-Noy”) is the first Filipino President to say that he supports the RH Bill. Like John F. Kennedy, he says that he will keep his “Catholic” faith separate from his public life, and that the Church will play no role in shaping his decisions. Naturally, the population controllers and other anti-lifers are ecstatic over this, and anticipate legalized abortion in the Philippines in less than three years.

The purpose of my tenth mission to the Philippines was to speak at Human Life International’s 17th Asia-Pacific Congress, and to help our Regional Coordinator, Ligaya Acosta, assist the Church hierarchy and large Catholic lay groups in organizing and synchronizing their efforts.

The pre-Congress training sessions kicked off with an opening Mass celebrated by a dozen priests. We had pro-life representatives from Laos, India, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Taiwan, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, Uzbekistan and, of course, the Philippines. The three-day pre-Congress was designed to train pro-life leaders from each of the countries in the basics of the anti-life assaults, and to awaken and inform them as to the many directions they may come from. We also hosted a meeting of more than 150 high-level pro-life leaders, including bishops, senators, congressmen and judges, as well as large numbers of businessmen, doctors and lawyers.

The worst fear of the population controllers is a vocal Church working hand-in-hand with large and activist lay groups. The head of the Knights of Columbus of the Philippines was at the meeting, and he said that the combined strength of 300,000 fourth-degree Knights will be marshaled against the RH bill. They will be joined by the powerful Couples for Christ group, El Shaddai, and the Focolare, among others. Between them, these groups represent millions of Filipinos.

The 17th Asia-Pacific Congress officially began on November 6. Among the many bishops staying through the entire conference were Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, recently retired from the post of Archbishop of Cebu City; Archbishop Jose S. Palma, his successor; Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, Archbishop of Manila; Archbishop Tomash Peta, President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Kazakhstan; Archbishop Francesco Panfilo, President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands; Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, Director of the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life; and Bishop Nerio P. Odchimar, President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

The two and a half days of talks stretched from early Saturday to noon on Monday. We had eleven different talks, and the open forum discussions were extensive. As usual, the most important work happened behind the scenes with meetings and networking.

One of our speakers was Congressman Roilo Golez, the author of House Bill 13, which would protect all human life from fertilization. He presented me with a thick pile of papers proving statistically that the main causes of high maternal mortality in the provinces of the Philippines is not the lack of “safe” abortion, but a lack of attended childbirth. But the population controllers do not care about this; all they want is fewer Filipinos.

Cardinal Rosales encouraged all of us during his homily at the closing Mass of the Congress, emphasizing that prayer and action are both needed in the world today. We also outlined our plans for the next Congress, which will be held in Kazakhstan in September of 2011.

This was definitely the most productive trip we have had to the Philippines. More than 500 people attended the Congress, and there were more high-ranking Church officials there than at any other HLI conference we have ever held. We also helped achieve more strategic goals than at any other conference, the most important being the organization of the pro-life leaders of the entire nation to fight the Reproductive Health Bill.

To lose the Philippines to the culture of death would not only be a devastating blow to the morale of pro-lifers all over the world, it would open the floodgates to funds pouring in to devastate Filipino families. So we are appealing to all of our friends to support our efforts in the Philippines with generous donations. Please also pray fervently for the future of the Philippines. If the RH Bill passes, there will be abortion mills all over the country within three years, and the soul of this most Catholic nation will quickly wither and die. The West will have occupied the Philippines yet again, but this time the occupation would be in the form of anti-life resources and structures that would destroy what is so beautiful and unique about this great country: its faithful and joyful families, and indeed, its future.